Semi-trailers may be used to haul waste material, such as food by-products used for animal feed. Examples of food by-products can include unsold bakery products, unutilized dough, improperly proportioned ingredients, “day-old” products, mislabeled products, and any other products that are unsuitable for retail sale and consumption.
Ideally, such waste material is transported in an optimally uniform, dense condition. Readily compactable waste material may be placed in portions at the rear of a semi-trailer, with each portion compacted horizontally against the semi-trailer front end wall until the semi-trailer is filled. However, not all waste material can be readily prepared in this manner.
Elasticity or cohesion of the waste material may impede its longitudinal movement along the semi-trailer. This can leave voids in the material, or portions having a relatively low degree of consolidation, thereby reducing the payload significantly and/or preparing a load having varying density and/or weight. A relatively high weight over the rear semi-trailer wheels may violate local regulations leading to substantial penalties levied for such “back end weight,” even if the total load weight is in compliance with posted maximums.
Waste material may also be deposited into an open-top semi-trailer using an operator-controlled loading apparatus, such as a front-end loader. This process can be slow and expensive. Valuable material can also be inadvertently dropped outside the semi-trailer, requiring clean-up and disposal.
Waste material can be introduced into the top of a ramp or inclined channel emptying into a semi-trailer. To propel waste material to a selected zone in the semi-trailer, the ramp will ideally be at a predetermined inclination. Consequently, the elevation of the top of the ramp above the adjoining ground surface may be unacceptable from a safety standpoint. For example, the ramp structure may be subject to overturning wind forces, the potential for which could be minimized by locating the ramp inside a specially constructed building. Inside or outside a building, it will be necessary to lift the waste material by the loading apparatus to the top of the ramp, subjecting the loading apparatus and its operator to a risk of overturning or droppage. Furthermore, as the height of the ramp increases, cleaning and repair of the ramp structure may be more difficult. To reduce these safety issues, the ramp height can be reduced, thereby shortening the ramp length, e.g. extending only to the semi-trailer mid-section.
Waste material traveling down the ramp will be discharged into the trailer in a pile having a forward slope and a rearward slope. Each deposit of waste material will result in a pile of increasing height and decreasing slope. To load the waste material uniformly in the semi-trailer, the semi-trailer can be repositioned beneath the ramp discharge point, thereby enabling additional waste material to be loaded in remaining empty portions of the trailer. Nevertheless, it may not be practicable to position every portion of the semi-trailer beneath the ramp discharge point, thereby leading to uneven distribution of the load. In such cases, it will likely be difficult, and more costly, to move waste material to empty portions of the semi-trailer in order to provide a uniform distribution throughout the trailer.